Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
218 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic
1352 - Innocent VI is elected Pope
1787 - New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution
1865 - History of slavery in the United States: William Henry Seward proclaims that the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution has been ratified by the legislatures of 27 of the then 36 states.
1892 - The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker is held at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg
1926 - The first performance of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Makropulos Affair is held in Brno, Czechoslovakia
1966 - Saturn’s moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker
1997 - HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium
2001 - The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan, New York City, is damaged by fire
2002 - The film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is released worl
2002 - 2003 California recall: Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier

Births
1610 - Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist (d. 1688)
1661 - Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
1856 - Sir J.J. Thomson, British physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
1863 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)
1870 - Saki (Hector Hugh Munro), British writer (d. 1916)
1886 - Ty Cobb (Tyrus Raymond Cobb), American baseball player (d. 1961)
1890 - Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)
1897 - Fletcher Henderson, American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer (d. 1952)
1917 - Ossie Davis, American actor (d. 2005)
1928 - Józef Glemp, Polish cardinal
1939 - Michael Moorcock, British author
# 1939 - Harold E. Varmus, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
1943 - Keith Richards, British guitarist (The Rolling Stones)
1946 - Steven Spielberg, American film director
1946 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1977)
1950 - Leonard Maltin, American film critic
1961 - Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater
1971 - Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spanish tennis player

Deaths
1737 - Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker (b. 1644)
1787 - Francis William Drake, British Admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1724)
1869 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
1936 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Austro-Hungarian-born Yugoslav seismologist (b. 1857)
1971 - Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
1990 - Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (b. 1914)
1991 - George Abecassis, British Formula 1 driver (b. 1913)

Holidays and Observances
R.C. Saints - Gatianus of Tours